3.31.15 WELTE / MIDI

8PM

In 1904, the firm of M. Welte & Sons devised a revolutionary player-piano technology, which was able to record composers like Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Grieg performing their works in a way that preserved all nuance, expression and dynamics of the performance. When one of these “piano rolls” is played through a Welte-Mignon Reproducing Piano, the ghostly imprint of the composer’s hand is evident as the keys move precisely as they did on the day of the recording. It is not just a document of a musical performance, but an eternal record of presence and movement of the body in art-making.

The closely-guarded secret of the Welte-Mignon system was lost along with the factory in the 1944 Allied bombing of Freiburg, Germany. On this night, however, participants will use contemporary technology to make a bodiless digital impression of their own, which will be forever available and accessible. Participants will also be offered a glass of fine scotch, and an opportunity to view the beautiful work of Emily Joyce.

Adam Samuel Goldman uses songwriting and performance as a starting point for inquiries into translation, process, presence, and authorship. His work employs replacing, remaking, and erasing as the means to explore the spaces between composer and work, and work and listener. Goldman is founder of the music collective Fol Chen, which has presented projects at LACMA, the Walker Art Center, Machine Project, the Annenberg Space for Photography, and has released three albums on Sufjan Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty Records label. Goldman received an MFA from CalArts in Valencia, CA.

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